What Is the Best Awning Material to Fight Sun Damage?

Having an awning in your outdoor space creates shade, protects you from the elements and adds plenty of charm and uniqueness to your property’s exterior.

Many Phoenix residents install awnings to minimize their home or business’s exposure to harmful UV rays. However, sun damage doesn’t just impact furniture, art, flooring or other features of your home that are susceptible to fading due to year-round exposure. Prolonged exposure to the sun’s rays can also damage your awning’s fabric, causing its once radiant color to fade.

When shopping for an awning, make sure to consider more than just aesthetics. Choosing a high-quality, durable material ensures both protection from the sun and resistance to fading.

What Materials Are Used to Make Awnings?

Awnings come in a variety of sizes, colors, patterns and materials. Typically, awnings are made of one of the following materials:

• Acrylic fabrics
• Vinyl
• Metal
• Natural materials

Acrylic Fabrics

This popular awning option is both lightweight and durable. Acrylic awnings can withstand years of exposure to UV rays and resist fading. Acrylic awning fabrics are also good at resisting mildew and tearing, which makes them suitable for hot, humid and windy climates.

Vinyl

Vinyl awnings tend to be heavier than acrylic fabrics and natural materials. Vinyl is also highly resistant to mildew and UV rays, which makes it a viable option for Arizona’s hot and humid monsoon season.

Metal

Metal awnings are typically made of steel or aluminum and have powder-coating finishes to protect the awning from exposure to UV rays and rust and mildew caused by humidity.

While metal awnings cannot be retracted or rolled up, they are easy to maintain and durable, meaning they can withstand severe weather, such as high winds, hail and rain.

Natural Materials

While awnings made from natural materials, like wood and cotton-based canvas, can be inexpensive to purchase, they are more difficult to maintain and may require more frequent replacement than other, more durable materials. Both cotton and wood are susceptible to the elements, such as UV rays, water and fire.

The latter can be dangerous if you live in an area prone to wildfires. To reduce the risk of fire, it’s recommended that home and business owners invest in awnings with fire-resistant properties.

Choosing the Best Awning for Your Home or Business

When choosing the right fabric for your home or business awning, it’s important to consider several factors, like the weather in Phoenix, the texture of the building’s exterior and the color palette of your landscaping.

Since Phoenix is the number one major city in terms of annual sunshine, your best bet is to choose a fabric that is UV-resistant, meaning it can protect you from heat and sunlight. You also want to make sure the fabric is fade-resistant and can withstand the unpredictable monsoon season with its heavy rain, dust storms, high winds and humidity.

At Arizona Awnings, we offer awnings made from high-quality, durable materials that maintain color through cleaning and exposure to the scorching sun and severe weather.

When choosing Arizona Awnings, you can rest easy knowing your custom-made awning meets the following performance criteria:

• UV resistance
• Flame-retardant performance
• Moisture resistance
• Fade resistance
• Long lasting
• Able to withstand severe weather

Our awnings have one more crucial feature many Phoenix home and business owners may find useful: they significantly reduce heat gain through walls and windows and help you cut down on energy costs.

Adorn Your Outdoor Space with Arizona Awnings

At Arizona Awnings, we combine quality with aesthetics. When shopping for your custom-made residential or commercial awning, you’ll have plenty of fabric types, colors and styles to choose from, without having to compromise looks for functionality.

Whether you’re looking to shield yourself from the sun while relaxing in your backyard or enhance your business’s curb appeal, we have the right awning solution for you.

For more information or to request an estimate, call 602-252-3430.